272 
LARIDA5. 
at the expense of a partial ducking.* Landing on the Mew Is- 
land, we found a number of their nests, containing generally three 
eggs, deposited either on the surface of the dried Zostera marina , 
which had been drifted on the island, or on the bare sand between 
the ledges of the rocks. One or both of each pair seemed to 
keep fishing within sight of their nest, as, although we did not 
see any birds sitting on the eggs, they instantly and hurriedly 
made their appearance overhead on our near approach to their 
treasures, uttering their hoarse jarring cry, and continuing to fly 
about with great anxiety and consternation. After firing for some 
time at all the birds that came within shot, and having killed 
thirteen, we ceased : — of these, two were roseate, three common, 
and eight, arctic terns. It is well remarked by Sir ¥m. Jardine, 
that — “ All the terns are very light, and the body being 
comparatively small, the expanse of the wings and the tail so 
buoys them up, that, when shot in the air, they are sustained, 
their wings fold above them, and they whirl gently down, like a 
shuttlecock. The roseate tern is remarkably buoyant, and we 
could almost run below and catch the specimen in our hat before 
it reached the ground.”! So soon as the young are ready to fly, 
they and their parents commence to wing their way southward, 
remaining for some time about Belfast Bay, where throughout the 
month of September they — S.- hirundo and S. arctica in particular 
— are commonly seen. As none of the terns remain during winter, 
the inhabitants of the Copeland Islands are puzzled to know 
whence they come in spring. They say that they have never seen 
them on their progress to the Mew Island ; but that every year 
in the month of May a heavy fog comes on, and after it has 
cleared away the rocks are studded with them ! Although fancy 
is here called to aid, the remark suggests that they migrate in 
large bodies. { 
* Terns have frequently come within a few yards of a person of my acquaintance 
while fishing in a boat about Green Island, near Carrickfergus — where they are 
called pirre-maws , — and when little fish were flung into the air towards them, were 
sure to he seized before reaching the water. 
f ‘ Brit. Birds,’ vol. iv. p. 275. 
t The Bishop of Norwich informs us, in his ‘ Familiar History of Birds’ (vol. ii. 
